Two students who died in Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University were being remembered Monday – as a manhunt for their killer continued following the release by authorities in Rhode Island of the sole person of interest detained in the case.

Ella Cook, a second-year student from Alabama, was “an incredible, grounded, faithful, bright light”, according to the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, which paid tribute to her at a service on Sunday.

Cook was vice-president of Brown’s chapter of College Republicans of America, the group said. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, also posted condolences to X, saying in part: “There are no words. Thinking of her family and friends, especially her parents.”

Ella Cook Photograph: GoFundMe

The other person killed was MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek national in his first year of studies at the Ivy League university, family members said.

Umurzokov’s identity was confirmed by Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry.

“He was incredibly kind, funny, and smart. He had big dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon and helping people,” his sister, Samira Umurzokova, said in a tribute on a GoFundMe campaign meant to support his family.

Nine other people were hurt in Saturday’s attack in the engineering building of Brown’s campus in Providence, during the school’s final exam period.

Authorities said late Sunday that a 24-year-man arrested in a raid at a Hampton Inn about 17 miles from the campus earlier in the day was being released.

“We have a murderer out there,” said Peter Neronha, Rhode Island’s attorney general, at a press conference.

“Sometimes you head in one direction, and then you have to regroup and go in another, and that’s exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours or so.

“There was some degree of evidence that pointed to the individual. That evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed. And over the last 24 hours leading into just very, very recently, that evidence now points in a different direction.”

MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. Photograph: GoFundMe

Brett Smiley, Providence’s mayor, acknowledged: “We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community”.

The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building on Saturday afternoon, firing more than 40 rounds from a 9mm handgun, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.

Law enforcement that raided the hotel recovered two handguns and two loaded 30-round magazines when the person of interest was taken into custody, the news agency reported.

Of the nine hurt, one student was released from the hospital, said Christina Paxson, Brown’s president. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition, police said on Sunday.

Durham Academy, a private K-12 school in Durham, North Carolina, said Kendall Turner, a recent graduate, was among those critically wounded.

“Our school community is rallying around Kendall, her classmates, and her loved ones, and we will continue to offer our full support in the days ahead,” the school said in a statement, adding that her parents were with her at the hospital.

Cook was remembered at a church service in Birmingham on Sunday. “She was an incredible, grounded, faithful bright light not only here growing up here at the advent in the myriad ways in which she served faithfully, and the ways in which she encouraged and lift up those around her, but at Brown University she was an incredible light in that particular place as well,” said the Rev R Craig Smalley.

Martin Bertao, president of College Republicans of America, posted a statement from the group to X. “Ella was known for her bold, brave, and kind heart as she served her chapter and fellow classmates,” he said.

“Our prayers are with her family, our Brown [College Republicans], and the entirety of the campus as they heal from this tragedy.”

Jonathan Henick, US ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he was “deeply saddened” by Umurzokov’s death in a tribute posted to his embassy’s website.

“We extend our sincere condolences to Mr Umurzokov’s family, friends, and fellow students and mourn the loss of his bright future,” he wrote, adding the Uzbek words “marhumni Xudo rahmat qilsin”: may God have mercy on the deceased.

“He always lent a helping hand to anyone in need without hesitation, and was the most kind-hearted person our family knew. Our family is incredibly devastated by this loss,” Umurzokov’s sister said in a statement accompanying the GoFundMe appeal.

Saturday’s killings at Brown, the nation’s seventh-oldest higher education institution with about 7,300 undergraduate and 3,000 graduate students, occurred during one of at least 392 mass shootings reported in the US so far in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Monday was the 349th day of the year.

The Gun Violence Archive, a non-partisan resource, defines mass shootings as ones in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.

The Associated Press contributed reporting